WHAP E.

Napp

Writing the Continuity and Change over Time Essay Name: _______________________ Date: _______________________

First: A Message from the College Board This essay question deals specifically with analysis of continuities and changes over time and covers at least one of the periods in the concept outline. It can address, for example, any of the course themes, such as technology, trade, culture, migrations, or environment. There may also be some internal choice within the question, so that students are able to choose to draw their evidence from a case that they know better. Definition: Continuity The unbroken and consistent existence or operation of something over time Definition: Change An act or process through which something becomes different The Rubric: Basic Core:
1. Has acceptable thesis.

[1 Point] (Addresses the global issues and the time period(s) specified.) Argumentation Patterns of Continuity and Change Over Time
2. Addresses all parts of the question, though not necessarily evenly or thoroughly.

[2 Points but Partial Credit May Be Given]

3. Substantiates thesis with appropriate historical evidence.

[2 Points but Partial Credit May Be Given]

4. Uses relevant world historical context effectively to explain continuity and change

over time. [1 Point]

5. Analyzes the process of continuity and change over time.

[1 Point] Subtotal 7 Essay as a whole: Synthesis Expanded Core: Excellence Points Historical Thinking Skills Assessed

Expands beyond basic core of 17 points. The basic score of 7 must be achieved before a student can earn expanded core points.

Examples: Has a clear, analytical, and comprehensive thesis. Analyzes all issues of the question (as relevant): global context, chronology, causation, change, continuity, effects, content. Provides ample historical evidence to substantiate thesis. Provides links with relevant ideas, events, trends in an innovative way. Subtotal 2 TOTAL 9 Sample Question: Analyze continuities and changes in cultural beliefs and practices in ONE of the following regions from 1450 to the present. Sub-Saharan Africa Latin America/Caribbean What Good Responses Should Include [From the College Board]: 1. A good response analyzes continuities and changes in cultural beliefs and practices in one of the stipulated regions [Sub-Saharan Africa or Latin America/Caribbean].
2. Cultural beliefs and practices is understood very broadly in world history to

include religion, philosophy, ideology, science and technology, education, the arts, literature, and architecture.
3. Students do not have to address the entire region, but all examples they provide

must fall within the stipulated region. 4. Because the central task in this question calls for analysis of continuity and change, acceptable thesis statements need to address both, stating at least one continuity and at least one change.
5. Acceptable thesis statements also need to be explicit, not simply restatements of

the question or vague statements such as there were more changes than continuities. They also need to be relevant to the time period, beginning in roughly 1450 and ending sometime in the postWorld War II twentieth century.
6. A good response provides analysis of valid continuities and changes in cultural

beliefs and practices, supported by specific pieces of evidence from within the time period, which provide supporting examples of continuity or change.

7. For example, in terms of continuities, students could point to the continuation of

the practice of indigenous religions in either area and also to the continuation of the spread of Christianity in either area or of the spread of Islam in Africa; the ways in which migrants continued their cultures in new environments; the ways in which culture was used by all types of leaders to support political systems; the ways in which language, religion, and social customs provided a sense of identification.
8. In terms of change, for the sixteenth and the seventeenth centuries, students

could examine the development of syncretic forms of religion such as vodun or the cult of the saints, or the way in which the Spanish and Portuguese rulers of Latin America used art and architecture to legitimate their power.
9. For the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, they could discuss the spread of

Enlightenment thought in Latin America and the consequences of this; the impact of new racial ideologies, such as Social Darwinism, in Africa; the development of millenarian ideas such as the Xhosa Cattle-Killing Movement; the spread of anti-imperial, nationalist, and communist ideology in either area. For the twentieth century, students could examine the spread of the idea of human rights; the formation of new cultural identities, such as negritude; the ways religion was applied to political issues, such as fundamentalist movements and Liberation Theology; the increasing globalization of consumer culture.
10.

Any of these examples would need to be tied into the process of change and continuity, as would any background information that students provide to set up their essays. A good essay moves beyond a mechanistic beginning, middle, and end format and provides solid chronological knowledge across the entire time period. Further, students should think about including dates in their essay to demonstrate that they have the ability to describe with some precision when continuity and change happened. Solid historical analysis explains the reason for or the impact of a specific continuity or a particular change, and a good essay provides specific discussion of cause and impact. For example, the statement Nationalism grew in Africa in the twentieth century is a solid piece of evidence about change, but tying this to a cause or effect would generate this superior analysis: Nationalism grew in Africa, which led to the overthrow of European empires.

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An essay that effectively addresses world historical context might describe an extra-regional connection or a global process to explain continuity or change in cultural beliefs or practices. For this essay, students would need to focus on specific global links relative to the question, instead of focusing on a similar situation somewhere else in the world. For example, saying that China and Brazil both had Jesuit missionaries is a comparison, not a connection. Arguing that European Jesuit missionaries were proselytizing in South America and winning converts. This happened in China as well does, however, draw an extra-regional connection because the term European Jesuits provides a specific reference showing how European practices affected South American beliefs.

15. A strong essay would demonstrate greater nuance and sophistication, including the relationship between change and continuity. 16. It might note, for example, that a change in the early part of the long period covered in this question became a continuity for the rest of the period: The introduction of Christianity was a change in Latin America/the Caribbean, but then Christianitys presence and expansion became a continuity. 17. Similarly, nationalism developed as an ideology beginning in the eighteenth century, but it then became a continuity and has remained so through the present. 18. A specific example of syncretism, such as vodun, could be introduced as a change when it first developed, but the process of the syncretism of different beliefs, ideas, or artistic forms is a continuity across the entire time period. 19. The best essays will be those that do all of this, engaging their own content knowledge with the specific framing of the question. Time to Practice: 2009 Change Over Time Essay from the World History AP Analyze continuities and changes in patterns of interactions along the Silk Roads from 200 B.C.E. to 1450 C.E. First Step: Analysis of Directions Time Period: __________________________________________ Brainstorm Examples of Patterns of Interactions along the Silk Roads:

Second Step: Visualize a Time Line _____________________________________________________________________________ _ 200 B.C.E. 1450 C.E.

Brainstorm Significant Dates Regarding Patterns of Interactions along the Silk Roads. [Think Anchor Dates]

Subdivide Time Line.

Third Step: Identify the Changes.

Identify the Continuities. Fourth Step: Write a Valid Thesis Statement. Another Practice: 2011 Change Over Time Essay from the World History AP: Analyze changes and continuities in long-distance migrations from 1700 to 1900. Be sure to include specific examples from at least TWO different world regions. First Step: Analysis of Directions Time Period: __________________________________________ Brainstorm Examples of Long-Distance Migrations: Second Step: Visualize a Time Line _____________________________________________________________________________ _

1700 Brainstorm Significant Dates Regarding Long-Distance Migrations. [Think Anchor Dates]

1900

Subdivide Time Line

Third Step: Identify Changes.

Identify Continuities. Fourth Step: Write a Valid Thesis Statement. Write One Sample Body Paragraph for One of the Questions: _____________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________ _____ _____________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________ _____ _____________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________ ___

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